Band Training To Ease Injuries.

Ok, you have seen the “Link Free” resistance band  training set up for linear and lateral based towing that I showed you a week or so ago

I thought it may help to share with you my thoughts on linear speed band training and my program design I follow when implementing this band set-up to allow our athletes to safely run 40’s.

Monday is always Linear Day for us.  I prefer that because legs are fresh and there is less likelihood of hamstring or hip flexor issues due to fatigue.  Regardless how well I dynamically warm-up and gradually ramp up the workout session, I always have concerns that one of my athletes will strain a hamstring.  One hamstring strain can shut down an athlete for several days and maybe even weeks so preventing these during longer distance sprinting is critical.

We start out with doing a lot of partner resisted band running.

The great thing about partner resisted band running is there is less chance of hamstring issues because the band is actually doing a lot of the deceleration which early on does not overload the hamstring and provides it a assistance with deceleration which is when most strains occur.

Here is how I ramp up to being able to safely get athletes doing repeat 10, 20 and 40 yard sprints

I like to start week 1 and week 2 with Linear Repeat 3-4 step starts.  We do this in large groups as the video will show.  Everything is off of a whistle with a new group starting every 3 whistles.  This allows them to practice getting off the ball and activating the posterior chain in short amplitude movements.

In week 3 I will start Partner Resisted Band training running for 10 and 20 yard lengths.  (If you are not familiar with Partner Band Training) I will use this form of running for at least 2 weeks before we do any full out sprint work.  Again realize I have 6 weeks to bring many of these athletes up to some level of football shape and linear speed condition.  The key is to do it without injuring anyone and I have found that progressively increasing the distance of resisted running has been very productive and safe.  We always finish our partner resisted running with 1 – 20 yard burst to reset the neuromuscular bias.

Weeks 5 and 6 I will start decreasing partner resisted band running and supplement non-band sprints, starting with 20s and building up to 40s.  We will usually do 2 – 20s, 2 – 30s and finish with 2 -40s.  Recover time is usually about a 10 to 1 rest to work.  So 2-5 seconds of work with 20 to 50 seconds of rest depending on distance.

Week 6 we will increase this by 1 or 2 sprint at each level.

During the first 4 weeks also realize we are doing a lot of posterior chain partner resisted band crawling, towing, and dragging after running workouts or during other aspects of the weekly training schedule.  We are also doing a lot of hamstring stretching with bands and foam rolling on every workout.

My goal is to get the athletes to be able to do approximately 4-20s and 4  full out  40s by the time mini-camp starts the end of July.

I have followed this format for the past 3 summers and have had zero hamstring issues.  Knock on wood!!

Let me know your thoughts and comments on the blog.  Always looking to learn more or help out.

Getting BETTER with BANDS!!

Dave

PS.. Most efficient way to do resisted running with large groups is using the link free set up we discussed last week.  1 maroon thunder band and 1 pair of green XL bands is all you need.  FYI..If you really are ready to get your team going on this, we also have bulk packages that allow you save more and outfit your entire team.

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